France on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of Ebola on its territory, identified as a doctor who had flown back from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is fighting a major outbreak.

The case is the first of the deadly haemorrhagic fever identified outside the African continent during the current outbreak, which has also affected Uganda.

It is the first time France has detected Ebola. In 2014, during a major outbreak in West Africa, two patients were transported to France, but they had been diagnosed abroad.

The French Health Ministry said it had identified “a first positive case of Ebola virus disease on national territory”.

The patient “boarded a commercial flight from Kinshasa and was almost asymptomatic — except for headaches”, the ministry said.

Their condition “slightly deteriorated during the flight”, after which they were immediately isolated and taken into care upon landing in Paris, even before the disease was officially identified, the ministry added.

The French authorities said the patient was in a “stable condition”, and their viral load was “very low”.

Meanwhile, efforts are underway to identify potential contacts.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said he was monitoring the situation very closely, but the health ministry stressed that the risk of transmission remained low.

ALIMA (The Alliance for International Medical Action), an international medical humanitarian organisation, said the patient was one of its doctors.